Former rocker bringing revival to town

Published: Wednesday, February 6, 2013 at 09:19 PM.

Although the event is not a concert, those who attend will hear Talbot share part of his message through singing and strumming his guitar.

Talbot is a former member of a country folk-rock band Mason Proffit, which gained critical acclaim in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He became a Roman Catholic in 1978 after studying at a Franciscan center in Indianapolis, Ind.

At the three-day mission series, he said, he hopes to “bring believers to a more closer walk with God.”

On the first night, attendees will hear about Talbot’s testimony of leaving a life of rock music and entering the monastic expression of Catholicism. The following night, Talbot will lead a “Jesus prayer tradition” session, a way of prayer often overlooked in the West, he said.

The prayers of the Christian East “really helps us to go more deeply into a personal experience of prayer” by uniting every breath with the spirit of God and with “the real person of Jesus.”

Sunday night, he will walk attendees through liturgy, helping to reveal “a vibrant experience through the sacrament,” Talbot said.

“The church has always been on the front edge of human morality,” he said. Catholics and Christians “are to be on the front edge of really raising the spirituality of humanity.”

PANAMA CITY — John Michael Talbot plans to help revive believers at a local church by bringing “some good news” this weekend.

Talbot will conduct a three-night series on meditation, prayer and music at St. Dominic Catholic Church, 3308 E. 15th St., at 7 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

“We’re just trying to bring a word of faith and hope and encouragement in the Catholic church,” Talbot said, noting politics, an unstable economy and church sex scandals have discouraged a lot of people.

Talbot tours the country nine months out of the year conducting the three-day series, which has moved some believers from a dismal state to being “excited by their faith,” he said.

And it’s that aspect that Father Kevin McQuone, associate pastor at St. Dominic, said the Christian community could use.

“It is our hope that it will be a deepening of prayer and faith for the greater community and for people that come to church every day,” he said.

McQuone added hosting events that incorporate arts such as music outside of the pulpit helps to harness the message and raise faith.

Although the event is not a concert, those who attend will hear Talbot share part of his message through singing and strumming his guitar.

Talbot is a former member of a country folk-rock band Mason Proffit, which gained critical acclaim in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He became a Roman Catholic in 1978 after studying at a Franciscan center in Indianapolis, Ind.

At the three-day mission series, he said, he hopes to “bring believers to a more closer walk with God.”

On the first night, attendees will hear about Talbot’s testimony of leaving a life of rock music and entering the monastic expression of Catholicism. The following night, Talbot will lead a “Jesus prayer tradition” session, a way of prayer often overlooked in the West, he said.

The prayers of the Christian East “really helps us to go more deeply into a personal experience of prayer” by uniting every breath with the spirit of God and with “the real person of Jesus.”

Sunday night, he will walk attendees through liturgy, helping to reveal “a vibrant experience through the sacrament,” Talbot said.

“The church has always been on the front edge of human morality,” he said. Catholics and Christians “are to be on the front edge of really raising the spirituality of humanity.”